KSOM Organized 11th National Marketing Konclave on the theme – Marketing@New Normal

KIIT School of Management (KSOM) organized the 11th National Marketing Konclave on the 12th of December 2020. The theme the conclave was – 'Marketing@New Normal'.

Prof. Saroj Mohapatra, Director, KSOM, welcomed the guests and put forth the context for the conclave. He spoke about customers' changing mindset and the need for corporate's to adapt to this change. He mentioned how data science and analytics have started playing a huge role in understanding the consumer.

In her inaugural address, Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, KIIT Deemed to be University spoke about marketing's changing face over the past three decades. Marketing from being product-centric has now become consumer-centric. She quoted from Philip Kotler, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffet's works and highlighted how human values are becoming increasingly important in marketing.

Keynote speakers:

CEO and Board Member of Modern Foods India, Mr Aseem Soni, was the keynote speaker. He spoke about the significance of understanding what the consumer wants. With the consumer becoming more demanding and discerning, marketers need to be on their toes to adapt to situations and prepare for the future. He discussed the impact of e-commerce in India and the importance of retaining consumers in this highly competitive market. He said that today's marketer has to give value for money and a trust factor to the customer to remain at the top.

Discussions in Detail:

The inaugural session was followed by two-panel discussions facilitated by the Conclave Convenor, Prof. Joydeep Biswas. The first-panel debate was on the theme – 'How the Marketer can create Value for Consumers, Firms, and Society in the New Normal?' The panel included Mr Rajnish Bhasin, Managing Director, Marwana Foods who moderated the entire discussion. The other esteemed panellists were Mr Sanjit Satapathy, Business Leader, CB Group, 3M; Mr Allwin Agnel, Founder/CEO, Pagalguy.com; Mr Rajiv Mitra, CEO, Groupe Lactalis and Ms Priya Gilbile, COO, ManipalCigna Health Insurance. The panel thought that change in marketing has always been inevitable. Various events like demonetization, GST implementation and now the pandemic have kept changing the marketers' and consumers' perspectives. Handling uncertainties as well as pressure has been the forte of successful marketers. The panel concurred that there is 'hope and scope' for growth despite these adverse circumstances.

Most of the panellists agreed that there is a direct correlation between marketing and revenue. However, a few of the panellists cited a few real-life examples of how it may not be accurate every time. The product lifecycle stage, the product category, the market, and the company's ability to retain and give value to customers is the key to revenue generation on a sustainable basis. The panel believed that analytics and technology would start playing a more significant role in strategizing marketing.

The second half of the conclave had eight workshops for the students with topics related to Consumer Behaviour and Technology, Customer-Based Marketing Strategies, Marketing Environment, Realigning Salesforce, Reinventing Retail and Changes in Consumer Behaviour Post-Pandemic.

The second-panel discussion has the theme on the topic – "Will there be a Change of Equation between the Marketing Spend and Revenue Forecast". The panel was moderated by Mr Sandeep Agarwal, VP & Country Head for Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg Markets -Tech Mahindra. Other eminent speakers were Mr Raghu Reddy, Chief Business Officer – Xiaomi India; Mr Saumar Deka, Marketing Director – High Radius, Mr Kiran Patil, CEO & Founder – Growisto; Mr Shreekanta Kumar Parida, Vice President (Marketing) – SHV Energy Pvt Ltd (SuperGas) and Mr Prasad Routray, Head Corporate & Alliances – Airtel Payments Bank.

This conclave was one of four national-level conclaves annually organized by KIIT School of Management, the other three being HR, Finance and Business Analytics. This year's conclave based on marketing provided students with opportunitied to interact with business leaders for their holistic learning. The conclave was received enthusiastically by industry professionals, academia and students.

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